Vendor Management and the Rise of Organizational Brokerage in Contingent Labor Sourcing

• In Event: 3222 - Organizations, Occupations, and Work: Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 min): Table 18: Employment Practices

Abstract

The past several decades have seen a dramatic rise in non-standard forms of work. While its causes, including globalization, technology and economic climate have been well documented, there is little research on the organizational forces that contributed to its growth. This article focuses on the rise of the Vendor Management Organization (VMO), a still-emerging organizational form that facilitates large-scale sourcing of contingent workers. An archival analysis of media data from business, trade and mass media publications covering the 20-year period 1995-2015 shows how temporal combinations of economic, social, and relational forces contributed to the emergence and rise of VMOs. Changing asymmetrical power relations between actors helped transform a disparate practice into a globally powerful, yet relatively unknown, form that is rapidly transforming labour markets. This study contributes to organizational scholarship by enhancing understanding of labor market intermediaries and reveals the importance of meso-level forces in the expansion of contingent work.

Author

• Laureen K. O'Brien, Independent Researcher